ANALYSIS: Mathieu van der Poel targets special list featuring Eddy Merckx at E3 Saxo Bank Classic
CyclingTuesday, 25 March 2025 at 21:30
Mathieu van der Poel's incredible win at the 2025
Milano-Sanremo last weekend was yet another reminder of the fact he has
abilities not even Tadej Pogacar can replicate.
By taming the Slovenian beast and then launching his own
sprint early, the Dutchman claimed his second La Primavera victory in three
years and further cemented his place among the greats of cycling's Monument
races. But with the cobbled classics now on the horizon, attention is turning
to whether Van der Poel can maintain his red hot form in the E3 Saxo Bank
Classic and Gent Wevelgem.
Historically, riders who win Milano-Sanremo rarely go on to
feature prominently on the podium of either E3 or Gent-Wevelgem in the same
season. The list of those who have managed the feat is surprisingly short,
though it includes some of the sport’s most iconic names.
Van der Poel himself was the most recent to do it, finishing
second at E3 in 2023 just days after his storming victory in Sanremo. Before
that, one must look back to 2007, when Oscar Freire followed his Milano-Sanremo
win with third place at Gent-Wevelgem.
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Mario Cipollini did it in style in 2002, backing up his
Sanremo triumph with victory in Wevelgem. Other examples include Andrei Tchmil
in 1999 (second at E3), Alain De Wolf in 1981 (third at both E3 and
Gent-Wevelgem), Roger De Vlaeminck in 1979 (second at Gent-Wevelgem), and, of
course, the legendary Eddy Merckx in 1972, who managed second at E3 and third
at Gent-Wevelgem after taking victory in Sanremo.
These names form a rare club, one that Van der Poel already
belongs to and may look to join again. With his explosive climbing, powerful
sprint, and an uncanny ability on the cobbles, he’s uniquely positioned to buck
the trend of Sanremo winners fading before the cobbled heart of the spring.
What do you think? Will Van der Poel be able to continue his
form into the cobbled classics? Or will Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert, or
someone else have an answer?
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- Remco making stupid crass coments again. I would have won myself if i had been racing lol. As to putting Remco at Pogs level at grand tours he is no where near in the high mountains. He won the Vuelta yes good result but there was no big hitters there . Needs to mature up quite a bit and classics are no where same as grand tours.paultryan200221-04-2025
- Crash or not to get stuck on the front in the lead up to the line and then try to blow Pocagar and Skjelmose off from the front, in the sprint was a big mistake. He went far too soon and ran out of legs. A lot of sprints are won from the front, but a lot more are lost by doing that. He must have thought he had the legs but it backfired on him.Cyclingsbestfan21-04-2025
- Exactly this. A day or so before the race an analyst (I forget who) strongly advised that Pogacar should take a longer break after Roubais, and skip Amstel, or suffer the consequences. Turns out they were right.Hill3321-04-2025
- A rather picky argument. MVDP has been busy at top level since December, kind of normal he takes a break, especially to be back in the height of summer to work for another. What’s with challenging Tadej in the hills, does Tadej challenge him in cyclocross, or mtb??? Each to his own. Every year when riders start racing again we’re hesitant to expect much due to lack of racing environment experience and need to build up yet for Remco now he is expected (including by Tadej) to be at his top right from the start? Tadej, personally added to his program when many would (as usual advise him against), he has conflicting interests, wants to win things important to him but doesn’t focus on achieving that and imo, he’s kind of fallen into a trap by having underestimated how strong some others really are. He’s phenomenal but he can’t beat everyone at everything so like everyone else, at some point he will have to learn to pick more specifically because winning IS important to him. As everyone admits nobody would have expected Skjelmose to win in advance, nobody even entertained the thought Tadej might have had his dose and that someone like Skjelmose could pressure him (and if he’d ridden smarter he might still have won in a sprint). I have no problem giving the guy a break and am not critical of the condition he’s shown but I won’t give those a break who hype him up interminably and then only discover they need to look at reasons for underperformance when they are constantly reminded by others in advance that those should always be considered before expecting results. I don’t recall any of his fans ever accepting the argument that maybe at some point he’ll overdo it, the discussion is regular, the way he rode the Giro was not conducive to achieving the double and in the end he succeeded partly because JV wasn’t up to scratch at that moment but maybe Tadej had already reckoned with that, who knows?). The fact is, he was disappointed but had only himself to blame, I mean c’mon, that wind didn’t come out of nowhere. I’m no hater, just don’t find him more appreciable than many others who make just as much effort and believe me, Tadej’s main motivation is not to entertain you, he’s no Sagan, he just likes racing, the fact that entertains people is unimportant to him other than that it pays a good salary, or was downing his drink on the podium (which the other two obviously considered a bit uncomfortably) an effort to entertain, if so, I fear it was probably entertaining, maybe even encouraging the kind of spectators that have begun to become media worthy.Mistermaumau21-04-2025
- Well.. sorry, I'm not sorry.. I'd rather listen to the world champion's explanation for his own show of weakness, than accept the post-mortem views of an amateur armchair pundit.. Give the guy a break.. Skjelmose's last race was Paris-Nice, where he abandoned after a crash.. Remco is just on his 2nd race of the season, fresh from having won the previous week's De Bravantse-Pijl race. Tadej battled MVDP in MSR, Flanders, P-R finishing 2nd, 1st, 2nd.. MVDP has taken an early vacation, not wishing to contest hilly races against TP in the heat of summer. If Remco and Mattias were not in this race, Tadej would have won again, to the eternal consternation of haters. Even world champions have an off-day, especially after the bone-jarring efforts of the cobbles season. Let's just appreciate these athlete's efforts to entertain us.. and hope that none of them get in harm's way.FredMan21-04-2025
- I think one has to look at their actions across the finish line. Tadej gave Skjelmose a pat, whereas Remco was in anguish, understandably having pulled Skjelmose for most of the time. I don't think Tadej changes much. He can make some comments which are a bit off especially during TdF, but nothing as bad as Remco.
KerisVroom21-04-2025 - so pog has been busy. maximum efforts at MSR, de RONDE, ROUBAIX, now AMSTEL… that’s a lot. if he’s wearing down a bit then i think remco is very likely on the opposite trajectory. LIÉGE could be interesting.OCexile21-04-2025
- chapeauOCexile21-04-2025
- Womens racing strategy is so much different than mens! The top riders teams should have been controlling the breakaways time gap to keep it small but they all look at each other and call each others bluff!frieders321-04-2025
- d) 300k e) 2.0m f) 5.5mMistermaumau21-04-2025